ZWO ASI 533 MC Pro

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I have had this camera for a year or so now having done a fair amount of research to find the best suited camera for my setup; I’m currently using it with a Skywatcher Esprit 120 taking a variety of galaxy/nebula targets. Overall I’m quite impressed with the results – here are my observations:

Camera/scope Fit

In order to try and get the best fit I first made the decision that a One Shot Colour was going to be the best choice due to:

  1. Limited imaging time (UK weather!) and
  2. Avoiding multiple filter changes/sets of calibration frames etc.

This would make for a simpler imaging process so that I could hone my basic imaging skills and get to grips with the equipment and software.

Next I needed to get the right camera match for the telescope, in terms of pixel size/resolution and for this I turned to the Astronomy Tools website at https://astronomy.tools/calculators/ccd_suitability

Setup

Once I had installed the drivers which were available from the ZWO website the camera was then visible in the applications I was using (just had to keep an eye not to mix it up with my existing ZWO guide camera – did that once and couldn’t understand why I couldn’t see any stars!!).

I do use a Pegasus Pocket Powerbox Advanced to run my guide cam, dew heaters and focuser, however I prefer to hook the main imaging camera directly into a computer USB port – I had a few dropped connections running it all through the power box so split off the main camera and all seems to run okay.

Settings

I decided to do a sensor analysis using SharpCap which recommended the following settings:

  1. Gain: 101
  2. Offset: 20
  3. Exposure time with L-eNhance Dual Narrowband: 120 seconds
  4. (I’m in a Bortle 5 region)

Using the Camera

The camera performs very well however I did notice quite a number of Hot Pixels, but these are easily calibrated out. Many of the reviews for this camera describe “Zero Amp Glow”, which is correct, however darks are still required due to the hot pixels.

The below are some examples of recent images taken of Bodes Galaxy including with and without dark calibration frames.

25 Light frames (no calibration frames)
25 Light frames and 30 Darks and 30 Flats

My ASI533 Pro Settings

  • Connection: Connected directly to laptop USB port
  • Aquisition Software: Sequence Generator Pro (SGP)
  • Gain 101
  • Offset: 20
  • Binning 1×1
  • Exposures 120s, sometimes 240s if the seeing is good.